There is an irony to the fact that there are companies who make their living turning out crappy phones model after model, and then someone like Apple comes in and shows them how it’s done. The iPhone just might live up to the hype, but it’s not perfect. Yet.
I’ve been using the iPhone for the better part of a day. It arrived here at CrunchGear HQ at 9:41 AM. I’m the kind of guy who’s nearly comatose on a Saturday before noon, but I was excited when I hear that the FedEx guy was at the door. I knew what he had for me, and I’ve been waiting for it for quite awhile. I ran to the front door and there was a box from Apple with my name on it, along side a snarky FedEx delivery guy. Whatever, he wasn’t going to ruin my iDay.
Since then, I’ve done about everything with it you can, and I’m happy to say that the things that it does it tends to do quite well. Sadly, there are things older phones can do that the iPhone simply doesnt even attempt. The interface is a dream come true, there’s no doubt about that. Handset-wide, it’s a pleasure to use and doesn’t have any learning curve that anyone remotely familiar with computers couldn’t conquer in moments. I’ve handed it off to several first time users over the last two days and asked them to complete a task, and after some initial orientation and jitters, nobody had a problem.
When it comes to Apple’s core business, it can be said that the iPhone is a solid musicphone, probably the best I’ve ever used. The iPod program should really be called iTunes, as it’s much more similar to the desktop implementation than the portable hardware. Coverflow works fast and flawlessly, though if you’ve songs or albums not listed in the iTunes cover databases, it’s not as attractive. You don’t have to use it, but I can’t imagine anyone not wanting to.
The photo application is basic as can be, but it works. Traditionally, photo apps and camera apps were combined into one, whereas here they’re separate. Personally, I like the one-touch access to my camera. When my friends are doing something foolish, I don’t want to have to tell them to “hold that pose!” when the five-oh could be along any moment, and the iPhone delivers here. The photos aren’t great, typical of modern cameraphones. They’re better than most, however, so that’s something. One major concern of mine is the lack of a flash. The iPhone is marketed towards 20-somethings who are young and hip. The young and hip are often in dark bars, and dark bars require cameras to have a flash. Hopefully version 2.0 will address this. Again, this is personal preference on my part, but high-ends phones tend to have this feature. And does your phone do video? This one does not.
The idea that version 2.0 of the iPhone will fix it is a phrase I’ve said often today, as the iPhone isn’t quite what it could be. Besides lacking a flash, the phone is only 2.5G, meaning it’s slower than any handset on the market of comparable cost. I know I’m not the first one you’ve heard this gripe from, but it’s a glaring omission that can’t be dismissed.
Besides the pokey network speeds and the mediocre camera treatment, the iPhone isn’t something I’d wish on anyone who sends more than the occasional text message. Most phones allow you to compose a message and send it to several contacts simultaneously. The iPhone allows you to send one message to one person at a time. I can’t live like this. When I’m on the move, which is all the time, I have to keep my posse updated to my current whereabouts. Sending one message at a time rather than 5, 6, or 26 is seriously going to cut into my socializing time. This should be fixable with a simple firmware upgrade, and as I’m surely not the only one with this problem, I see it in the future. This is another matter of personal preference, but yet another feature common on low-end phones that Apple chose not to include.
Oh, and that one-text-at-a-time can’t include photos or video. For being so hi-tech, you’d think the iPhone could send an MMS message, but it cannot.
You know that we like to complain that CDMA carriers cripple the Bluetooth on the handsets they carry? The iPhone does it too, which totally sucks. I’ve got a number of Mac’s with Bluetooth, and the idea that I can’t just send a photo from my iMac to my iPhone via Bluetooth makes no sense at all.
That’s the bad, but the good might just outweigh it. Besides being a superb music device, the Web browsing capabilities are awesome. That’s the only word for it, “awesome”. Multitouch with Safari is the most intuitive way to browse the Web sans mouse-and-keyboard that I find myself wondering where it’s been all my mobile life. Even at an “extreme zoom-out”, I can navigate a page and find what I’m looking for. And the browser delivers the Holy Grail of mobile Web browsers that nobody else has been able to touch: multiple browsing sessions. Firefox and Safari for desktops have tabs (and that other browser). Safari on iPhone has multiple, scrollable windows. I really can’t describe how they work, but it’s worth checking out.
Pages render fairly quickly and have full formatting, a very nice feature. While some more advanced features are absent, you won’t miss them. It just works.
The smaller widget apps are fantastic as well. Weather and Calendar fast and exactly what you’re looking for, and the same can be said for Stocks and Calculator and even Notes. I personally think they should all be wrapped up in one larger application, but hey, my last name isn’t Jobs.
The last big app we learned about for iPhone was YouTube, and it’s pretty awesome. Videos look fantastic on the screen, partly because of the amazing optical hardware, but we’re getting into that a little bit farther down. The search works well and vids load up quickly in H.264. Not everything is available, though. Word is that’s to be fixed by early winter, so that doesn’t go on the negatives list by any means.
Google Maps is a little tricky. While there’s no GPS involved, it’s easy to manage. Anyone who’s used the Palm OS version should find it easy to find their way around. In fact, it’s maybe too easy: while centered into my home in Seattle, I couldn’t figure out where to type in a search term. Turns out it was the same place I used to locate Seattle. I was fully expecting a separate search box, but then I always think things are going to be harder. It’s fast and accurate, and for some might be reason enough to push them over to the iPhone camp.
So we’ve got through a lot of features, which was expected. What’s really intriguing about the iPhone, though, isn’t just how easy it is to get around these capabilities (it is), but rather the attractive package they’re presented in.
Design-wise, the iPhone isn’t a homerun, it’s a grandslam. Besides all th features mentioned above, it also makes voice calls on AT&T’s GSM network. We’ve heard fussiness from other blogs about how it’s a pain to make a simple phone call. These people must be idiots. While it’s not as fast as opening a clamshell, unlocking the phone is a piece of cake. Hit the Phone icon, and you’re set. I can’t find anything wrong with the way the iPhone does it.
It’s the hardware that sells it, though. Anyone who sees the iPhone in action starts to salivate with envy and lust that only Apple can generate. The phone just feels right. The size and shape are perfect, the screen is huge and bright, even in direct sunlight (it was a nice weekend in Seattle). The weight is firm. Not heavy, but firm. There’s no other adjective in my spellcheck for it.
Speaking of the screen, it is a little bit smudge-prone, but the same goes for any phone. I can’t see why some are unhappy with how it works.
Apple did borrow one thing from the Treo line of smartphones: the popular ringer mute switch. It’s as welcome here as it is on the Palm handsets, and is a lifesaver at movies.
After all is said and done, the iPhone’s not perfect, but as a first effort, it excels. There are some missteps, but nothing that Apple won’t be able to fix. Most of the problems I have with it are due to the type of phone user I am. I’m a fan of mature features that most people wouldn’t use, usually in a complex smartphone form. Thus, the iPhone in its first incarnation is not for me. But if you’re living in the world of RAZRs or Samsungs or other regular phones, then the iPhone is going to blow your mind. Even if you are a seasoned phone snob, you can’t ignore that most aspects of the iPhone are lightyears ahead of what anybody else is doing, and in all the industry-changing ways we’ve come to expect from Apple.
Check the iPhone out. Don’t be scared of it. It’s intimidating right up until you get your hands on one, then it becomes magnetic. While it’s not for everybody, it will be eventually, but chances are pretty good that it’s for you right now.
I don’t know, you highlight the same reasons that I wouldn’t buy an iPhone:
1) Lack of a flash (for the camera)
2) No video
3) the phone is only 2.5G, meaning it’s slower than any handset on the market of comparable cost.
4) The iPhone allows you to send one message to one person at a time.
5) Oh, and that one-text-at-a-time can’t include photos or video.
6) cripple the Bluetooth
7) Speaking of the screen, it is a little bit smudge-prone, but the same goes for any phone.
(Except you aren’t trying to watch video on “any phone”.)
I’d also add…
8) No Flash support in the web browser. They bill the Internet access as not being “Internet Lite” or “Mobile Internet” but “THE Internet”. Not true if you don’t have Flash. Go try to get into the Mythbusters website without Flash and see how far you get.
9) Let’s say you’re in the web browser and you find a cool page that you want to e-mail to a buddy of yours. Sorry. You can’t select, copy or paste text on the iPhone. This is really the deal-breaker for me. I can do that on a Blackberry, but not the iPhone? Come on!
10) No user serviceable battery. When the battery gets low or no longer takes a charge you have to send the phone back to Apple and pay… get this… you pay $85 to have them change out the battery! $85! My current phone only cost $40… FOR THE ENTIRE PHONE!
Source: Apple - http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/service/battery/
In the end that’s enough strikes to close out a third of a baseball game. Apple - Yes, you made $250,000,000 in 3 days… good for you. Now try making a product worth buying and see what happens.
I love the haters.. They make me smile ;-)~
As long as the iPhone makes some development happen in the smartphone sector I’ll be happy. I’m sick of MS and Palm winking at each other like a couple of idiots.
@ PhilK: Yah, it wasn’t in the scope of my article, but you’re totally right. Even if they don’t change a thing, the iPhone’s ripple effect is going to make things better for everyone.
I’m genuinely happy for the advances Apple has brought to the American mobile handset market. I think several of the things the iPhone does, or tries to do, will spur exactly the kind of imitation and innovation the market needs. Simple things like the way voicemail and text messages are presented, to more complicated things like a fuller browser, are long-overdue as handset features. Apple deserves applause for leading the way on fronts like these.
That said, I have the same complaint all the Apple haters / non Apple fanboys have: the coverage of the iPhone just isn’t neutral. I appreciate that you comment on several of the shortcomings, but please don’t call your concern about the inability to send texts to multiple users a “matter of personal preference.” That’s just a flaw, and a pretty silly one at that. (Can you imagine saying, “I wish I could send my friends songs that lasted longer than 3 plays or 3 days, but it’s a matter of personal preference”?)
Are the rest of the iPhone’s features really “lightyears ahead of what anybody else is doing”? Lightyears? My StarTac let me see how many voicemails I had, and from which numbers. My current phone plays music, takes pictures, makes phone calls, surfs the web, runs gadget-like applications. No doubt, the iPhone is better - newer hardware, better UI. But that’s an incremental improvement, even if a big increment. Other handsets use multi-touch too. Think of it this way: was OSX “lightyears” ahead of every other operating system when it came out? Even though it had many advantages over XP, it wasn’t lightyears ahead (Vista came shortly after). Fanboys will surely dispute the analogy, but the iPhone really doesn’t seem revolutionary to me.
Use of the “lightyears” term seems related to a broader problem I with iPhone coverage and commentary: too much of just quotes Jobs or the Apple spin. “Lightyears ahead” isn’t too far from Jobs’ declaration that the iPhone is 5 years ahead of its competitors. If you don’t think competitor offerings will be at least this good in 2012, you’re crazy. Endless comments have proclaimed that the iPhone is different from every other smartphone because “it runs OSX.” No, it really doesn’t, except in the sense that WinMo phones “run Windows.” It’s a mobile version, and we all know that. Does the iPhone let you surf the full internet? No, it doesn’t - Flash is just too common to be excluded from that declaration.
Personally, I think Nokia’s N95 is a more revolutionary device. The iPhone can replace one’s phone and mid-sized DAP, but the camera is a nice bonus feature at best - it couldn’t replace even a 4-5 year old elph. The N95 can legitimately replace one’s phone, mid-sized DAP, and camera (and maybe GPS if you’re into that sort of thing).
Anyway, like I started off saying, I’m really looking forward to seeing what Apple’s competitors come up with. And I’m really, really looking forward to having something to read about other than the iPhone.
The thing that really bothers me about the iphone isnt really the phone itself - its the people coming out in droves to say stupid things like “oh my god - the iphone has google maps…but… IT TELLS YOU DRIVE MINUTES!! OMG LOL WTF PWNED!!” (howardforums). Its like some of these idiots dont even realize a lot of these things existed outside of the iphone a long long time ago for other devices. In the same vein, as annoying as it is, now whatever comes out in the future BETTER have these features or they will be mocked as inferior without even being given a chance thanks to the rabid iphone following. It pains me to see people like this, but it hurts so good.
I love the fan boys and girls who think this phone is capable and special. A year ago I bought a phone, smaller than the iphone with
1/gps navigation
2/wifi
3/3G capability
4/push email
5/mms and all the other messaging
6/an expasion slot where i have put a 4G card
7/Music player
8/FM radio
So why exactly do people think this is special? This phone is for people who like devices that are fashion statements not useful or capable.
I have been reading a lot of comments and articles on the iPhone before and after its release. I have to admit that this one is the best I’ve read so far: Clear, objective and to the point.
One thing I’ve noticed about all the things people have been writing on the net is that you can spot the difference between those who have experienced the iPhone and those who have not. The first ones describe the emotional sensations they went through using the device (which is mainly something Apple excels at) and the latter talk features/functionalities. The difference is clear again in the article and in the comments made from the readers.
I remember once reporting to a friend of mine - new iPod owner and absolutely not an Apple fanatic - the (negative) comments made by some guy. My friend snapped back: He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He should buy an iPod, use it for an hour and then I would listen to what he has to say. And to me, after all I read, Apple has once more succeeded in making the iPhone experience something highly unique enjoyable.
I guess my mind’s made up after reading your article: I am getting myself an iPhone. Period.
V need an i phone killer from sony ericsson…… :-)
Personally, I feel the iphone is indeed lightyears ahead of what anybody else is doing mainly because of the touch screen with multiple finger sensin, the wonderful HUGE 3 inch LCD screen, and the ipod function.
I’ve been saying it constantly: the iPhone will revolutionize smartphone OSes. Why do I use my Sidekick, even over faster, better phones I’ve used over the years? Because it does exactly what its supposed to do. I don’t need to be able to download a scientific calculator or program little apps for it - i need email and AIM. I’ll be very interested in the iPhone when I finally get to play with it, but I’m going to be hard pressed to switch outright until someone - how about it, Meebo? - makes some sort of IM client.
Microsoft, Symbian, and Palm anchored in pre-2000 phone technology. They code for slow processors, weak input systems, and slow networks. While the iPhone OS is just a micro version BSD with some hotness thrown over it, it just proves what can be done with a little time and effort.
Better products through advertising.
I concur with the haters. Outside of the form-factor, this hardware lags in important areas. That many people aren’t aware of what is available is simply a failure by other handset makers to advertise their features. There should be a spoof ad from another handset maker that pokes holes in the butt of fawning iPhone fans. It’s like saying, “I just bought a car with a CD player in that has multi-touch! It cost way more than other cars, but it’s the price you have to pay to be IT.” The device should do a few things really well, and this author pans each of those things. You basically confirm that they compromised function for form all the way down the line. $2000 over two years for an iPod with a couple extras? No GPS? Crap Bluetooth?
You all talk about how the iphone is ‘light years’ ahead of what’s going on out there. Have you seen the HTC Touch?
http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/htc_touch/
http://www.htctouch.com/
Uh Oh - light years just became light seconds.
iPhone did a great thing. It got all of the OEM’s off their butts and made them actually start to develop what they had been talking about for years. You are going to see similar devices from every major OEM within the next year and a half.
If you’re set on the iPhone - I feel you - you want to be part of revolution. If you’re heart says yes, you may want to consult your wallet and ask yourself, “For the same price as an entry level laptop, what does this phone actually do?”
From the article, I will never purchase this iPhone (the second is TBD). I have trouble paying $600 for a cool looking UI. There are a lot of solid music phones out there that allow me to use WMP or Napster to Go just as well as this phone uses iTunes. Even something as simple as a WM Smartphone blows iPhone out of the water from a feature perspective.
Apple, Congrats on a great idea coming to fruition, but you’ve got some work to do.
-ex2223@yahoo.com
hey….are you talking about apple’s i-phone it’s a real advanced technology. If you want to get low rate american express credit cards check out http://www.credit-card-gallery.com
i-phone ……..was my dream which comes to be true in few days when i will get salary. If you blog or have a webpage check out http://www.widgetmate.com
personally, for the money, i think the iPhone should have some other features not mentioned:
- a much bigger hard disk
- video IM on the go
- video phone
- TV tuner w/ dvr
- this one’s just a cool idea, but hey, how about a battery which can be charged in multiple ways, including with say, a solar-cell charger type of thing if Apple could find a company to partner with to make such a thing. I don’t know, some kind of better battery solution than the current one! I live near several Apple stores, so it would be easy for me to get a replacement, but I feel for those who would have to send theirs away. That’s a terrible blow to the resale value of your iPhone down the road in a couple of years. You’re pretty much blowing the $$ you spend on one of these, nobody in 2 years will want a used one that they might at any time have to pay $85 for a new battery and go a few days without their phone!!!
i just can’t justify buying one for the time being when it can’t do these things. my current phone can text in every way, email, browse (clumsily but still), has a nice qwerty keyboard, doesn’t bother to combine a camera or music player, but i already have both of those things anyway. if the iPhone could replace my video iPod and my digital camera, with just its current feature set and still lacking the things I mention above, I would probably not be able to stop myself from getting one. I even have AT&T already! so that should say something. right now, the iPhone looks super-cool, but it seems like a stunted version of what it will be within only the next couple of years. if the current iPhone was coming out for $299, maybe. but with its current deficiencies, its not worth it to me yet, as a long-time Mac user and big fan of gadgets.
As the saying goes: “Rome was not built in a day”.
Even though some of the features on iPhone exists on other “fugly” cellphones…BUT how about (iPhone’s) ease of use, simplicity and it’s sheer beauty!!!
I bet all of you are attracted to beautiful opposite sex or anything good looking and easy on the eyes.
Apple\Jobs is a smart ppl\guy…maybe all the missing features cannot be “perfected” at this point in time but be patient it will get there…another saying “One step at a time”
Why don’t you guys speak up and criticize Motorola, Nokia all these years for not making their phones easy to use and “smart” in the same vein!!!
You are just jealous of Apple\Jobs and all of you are insecure…get a life!!!
Meanwhile enjoy the iPhone as it is, if you can afford it, or just SHUTTHEFUCK up.
iPhone at this juncture is “what it is”
Is it just me, or can most of these “issues” / “personal preferences” be fixed with software updates. And more than likely will be fixed with software updates. From what I’ve experienced in the past Apple has a good track record of updating their devices.
The flip side is that there are somethings that just cannot be fixed with software, the internal hardware. We can all gripe and moan about no GPS, no 3G, no TV tuner with DVR (that made me smile too), larger storage. Hey, I would have loved to seen large nand flash install in these devices. But there is a rhyme and a reason for each of these. Like, only certain components were available at the time of purchased and assembly. We can all speculate but, the machine will keep on moving and we’ll all keep on buying the new products every couple of years ;-).
In the mean time, crack open and pour yourselves a tall glass of “Hater-Ade” and enjoy.
-SP
@ Z: Yah, I’ve used the touch. It’s nice, but Windows Mobile needs a real keyboard, even the shiny new Version 6. I’m personally a Treo fan, and a Helio Ocean fan. I’m used to taking mid-range features for granted, which is why I was a little disappointed by the iPhone.
And that’s the point. If you’re a smartphone user, you’re going to wonder where many features are. If you’re coming from the I’m-another-RAZR-user camp, your mind will be blown. That’s the duality that comes from personal experience.
Hi Matt,
Does the iphone support vpn over wlan & edge and if so have you tried it?
I’m with Cosmic; give me an N95 anyday (though preferably the day after they finally start working with AT&T’s new 3G network). I want to take nice videos and MMS them to the web more than I want to flick through my iTunes with my finger. I do agree with Ben though that Apple always does make a product that’s not just a toy, it’s an experience, and a very nice one at that. But that being said, as much as I want to experience the thrill that is iPhone, I can’t buy it for fear that after a few days of finger-flicking landscape-browsing goodness, that’d get old and the “thrill” would decay into the post-beer-goggles booty-call remorse.